Marketing 101

Stuart has an idea to start selling socks made out of cotton wick and ethically sourced materials. He begins by researching other companies to see who else is offering a similar product.

What would this activity be classed as?

• Scoping out the market

• Competitor analysis

• Market segmentation

• Promotion

Answer explanation

Stuart needs to first assess whether the idea he has is going to be viable. If the market for this product is already very saturated, it could be difficult for him to find a point of difference, and effectively sell this product.

This is one of the first stages in research and development

Stuart finds that the product idea he has is quite unique, with only a few other companies offering anything similar. Stuart now starts to look at the potential audience for the socks.

What activity is this classed as?

• Promotion

• Market segmentation/audience setting

• Competitor analysis

• Brand guidelines

Answer explanation

Market segmentation or audience setting is where you look at who is buying your products (or, for a new business, who is most likely to buy your products) by grouping them together by common characteristics such as age, gender, income, behaviour, morals etc. This will help you to understand your customer better and help you create more effective targeted marketing messages to them.

Stuart is planning to source his socks from a supplier who manufacture the socks in India. He has worked out how much each pair of socks will cost to produce, and from this information he has decided upon a recommended retail price for the socks when selling them to customers.

What is this activity classed as?

• Pricing Strategy

• Placement of product

• Campaign process planning

• Promotion

Answer explanation

Pricing Strategy is the art of deciding upon a suitable price point for your product or service, and can be based upon a number of variables.

Stuart has opted for a 'cost-plus pricing strategy' although he could also have decided the price a number of different ways, including looking at what the competitors are charging

Stuart wants to make sure he can create effective promotional materials and messages for the socks when they launch. He decides to check what the competition are doing on their digital channels to promote their similar products.

What activity is this classed as?

• Marketing campaign planning

• Promotion

• Competitor Analysis

• Market Research

Answer explanation

Competitor analysis is the act of finiding your closest market competitors for your product or service, and analysing what they are doing. This could be specific to the channels they use to promote their products, their website or simply their social channel performance.

It aims to give a picture of what competitors are doing well and not so well, to help you decide upon your own messaging so you can develop a USP (Unique selling point).

Stuart now knows his core audience for the socks he wants to sell are:

18-30 year old men living in the UK who are interested in keeping fit, likely members of a gym.

Stuart works to understand how best to target this audience, so he starts to do some research on different digital platforms to understand the core audience on each.

What would this type of activity be called?

• Targeting

• Positioning

• Promotion

• Marketing campaign planning

Answer explanation

Targeting comes after you have segmented your audience.

Once you know who your core audience is, you need to look at where you can find them in order to utilise these channels to target them with messages about your product or service.

Stuart has now successfully found a couple of digital platforms his core audience can be found on. These are:

TikTok, and Instagram.

Stuart now needs to work on the right marketing activity reach his core audience on these platforms.

What is this activity called?

• Strategy

• Promotional tactics

• Campaign planning

• Positioning

Answer explanation

Promotional tactics are where we decide what type of marketing we are going to be using to target our audience on a particular platform.

It could be Facebook ads, Instagram Reels or YouTube to name but many

Stuart is keen to appeal to his desired audience by creating content marketing messages which persuade the potential customer into buying his socks. He decides that this particular customer would like to hear how breathable his socks are, allowing them to endure hours of exercise without smelly, damp feet.

He creates messages pushing out this feature of the socks.

What is this activity classed as?

• Promotion

• Segmentation

• Positioning

• Campaign planning process

Answer explanation

Positioning is the art of creating marketing messages in such a way that appeal to the core audience and allows them to perceive the product you are selling int he way you want it to be perceived.

It often uses Unique selling Points which are ways of making a product appear different to other similar ones in the market.

Stuart has launched his first campaign, and the socks are selling like hot cakes! However, Stuart is aware that the popularity of his socks could be short lived, especially once a competitor starts copying his idea and selling it cheaper.

Stuart wants to look at modifying his socks into trainer socks and socks in more colours and patterns, so they can be launched as the original socks start losing profit.

What would this exercise be classed as?

• Product development

• Product Extension

• Market research

• strategy

Answer explanation

Product extension is a concept where a company launches a newer version of a product (usually modified to make better - think iPhone) in order to keep customers buying from them when the novelty of their initial product model wears off.